Fandango is emerging as the winner in its decade-long battle against rival MovieTickets.com,
dramatically altering a growing sector of the movie business.

For years, the online movie-ticketing space has been divided between the two major players, but
steps by Fandango in recent months have shifted the momentum, analysts said.

“There may not be room for two companies anymore,” a studio executive said. “Isn’t it easier to
have one and not confuse audiences? They want one-stop shopping.”

So how did the tide turn in Fandango’s favor?

One acronym: AMC.In February, Fandango managed to persuade the country’s second-largest theater
chain to jump ship from MovieTickets.com, adding 3,000 more screens to its rolls. Making the
defection particularly painful is the fact that AMC was one of the companies that founded
MovieTickets.com in 2000 and remains a part owner.

In short order, Fandango announced it had aligned with three former MovieTickets.com cohorts,
AOL Moviefone, Yahoo! Movies and MSN Entertainment, to sell tickets, putting it ahead in the battle
to establish a foothold on the major portals.

Fandango now represents about 70 percent of the online and mobile movie ticketing space in the
United States, the company said.

“As with most success stories, it all starts long before the results are apparent to the general
public,” said Rick Butler, Fandango executive vice president and general manager.

Not that MovieTickets. com is giving up without a fight. The company is suing AMC for breaching
its joint-venture agreement.

Neither Fandango nor AMC would comment on the litigation. Ryan Noonan, a spokesman for the
theater chain, however, said that the decision to offer domestic tickets exclusively through
Fandango was part of an effort to prevent users from having to go through multiple sites to buy
tickets.

“We were really operating with two different ticketing sites, so it created confusion,” he said.
“It made sense to have one set partner, and we wanted to work with a ticketing platform like
Fandango that gave us the broadest reach.”

Beyond the effect of the AMC deal, Fandango has also benefited from a larger shift in consumer
behavior that has allowed it to thrive.Movie attendance in the United States has been declining in
recent years, but users’ growing comfort with online ticket buying is allowing Fandango to
develop.

“While attendance has been relatively flat, we have consistently grown, because we are on the
forefront of technology,” Butler said.

A studio executive has doubts about Fandango.“It’s the current market leader, but nothing about
the user experience suggests it’s a permanent power.”

Fandango, however, continues to branch out. Beyond allowing customers to buy their tickets on a
smartphone or tablet, the company offers paperless ticketing, through which customers can check
into theaters with their phones by using a bar code.

“A few years ago, we didn’t have a single app,” Butler said. “Today, we have 25 million
downloads.”